Friday, January 4, 2013

[UPDATED] St. Louis Homicide No. 2: Man Shot to Death Over Theft of Sweets

Updated Sunday at 10:46 am with media links and a police spokesperson's correction to the original incident report.

Prosecutors have charged Kenneth Payne, a 33-year-old from the 3400 block of Montana, with the South City shooting Thursday night that left one man dead after an argument.

That argument was about the shoplifting of sweets. According to the online probable cause statement, the sweets were two candy bars; the Post-Dispatch is now reporting the item was a bag of Chips Ahoy! cookies. Either way, a man is dead. Over sweets.

It happened at Sam's Beauty Supply on the 3900 block of South Grand, and was caught on surveillance tape, according to the PC statement.

Thursday evening at around 7 pm, police say, a 30-year-old white male employee of the business and his white male friend, age 22, were inside Sam's Beauty Supply.
They spied a customer -- described by police as a 28-year-old black
female -- trying to steal some sweets. The shoplifter's had a
boyfriend with her -- Kenneth Payne, authorities believe. Payne
allegedly started arguing with the men from the store. This argument
spilled outside.

Payne started to walk away from the ruckus,
then pulled a stainless steel revolver from his waistband and fired. He
hit the store employee in the abdomen and hand, and hit the 22-year-old
male in the chest -- a fatal shot.

By the time the cops
arrived, the 22-year-old was unconscious. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
His name has not been officially released as of Sunday morning because police have not yet notified
his next-of-kin, but the PD has identified him as Anan Abdallah, a Palestinian from Jerusalem.

As for Payne, he's been arrested and charged with murder, assault and armed criminal action.